Eddie Alvarez gets sued by Bellator

It's being reported that Eddie is being sued by Bellator. He said, the UFC offer is not being matched by Bellator. He said, it's the difference in fine dining and McDonald's. Does this mean Eddie has signed with the UFC, or is Eddie being sued for not signing Bellator's counter offer.

Eddie Alvarez sued by Bellator, after they tried to match UFC contract

By Chris Hall on Jan 7, 2:58p 250
Photo via Bellator.com
Eddie Alvarez has found himself in a sticky situation as the UFC and Bellator battle for his services. He told The MMA Hour today that he's now being sued by his former employer. Facebook Twitter
Last week it came out that LightweightEddie Alvarez had gotten caught between the webs of the UFC and Bellator. Alvarez had completed his contracted fights with Bellator after a first round KO of Patricky Freire in October. But when the UFC made him an offer in December, Bellator decided to invoke their matching rights to keep him under their banner.
Alvarez announced his frustration with the situation on Twitter shortly after. On Monday he appeared on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani to discuss some more details:

Everyone's heard that Bellator has match and whatnot. it's a difficult situation. We went to settlement a couple days ago. We had a settlement meeting where everything was supposed to get worked out. I was sued maybe 30 minutes after that. There's a lot of tension in the air.

We don't believe it was matched at all. I wanted to give details but I can't because we're in the middle of a pending lawsuit. If I want to go to dinner with one guy and another guy asked me to dinner. If the attention of one guy is to take me to a fine dining restaurant and the other guy wants to take me to McDonald's, guy #2 just thinks dinner's dinner.

They're going to the media and saying they matched the offer, but in our opinion they didn't match at all. The terms are not the same.

If this goes in front of anyone in court, they're going to see that this is not a match. The truth is this is disappointing. I gave a lot to Bellator and I don't get much back in return.

If it was a match I'd be more than happy to honor the contract. I would have no problem going to fight for Bellator. I'd love to fight the Ben Henderson's and Gil Melendez's. The issues has to do with being fair. The contract says at the end we get to match this contract. I said yes to that 4 years ago. In our eyes it is not a match. This is the difference of a lot of money.

It's up to the court now, man. I'm being sued. it's going up before a judge. I think it will become very clear.

it wasn't a Hector Lombard deal, but it was a good deal. And I consider a much bettor deal than what Bellator's offering.

Tried to make an offer to make it fair. We offered a number, it was less than projected UFC offer. The conversation was over in less tha a minute, like "No way". It wasn't a half hour after that that I had a lawsuit.

This has been most violent, most tactical, most heartless battle I have ever been I and I don't have gloves or a mouthpiece in.

Eddie wasn't able to give a timeline for his expected return to action. All he said was "A bad settlement is always better than great litigation." For now he's being sued by Bellator for refusing to sign the contract they presented to match the UFC's offer. According to his Twitter, Eddie believes he'd have to sit out for a year to nullify Bellator's matching rights.
Bloody Elbow will keep you updated as this story develops further.

It would be an interesting case if Eddie is arguing that Bellator can't match the UFC's offer by simply offering the same payment per fight. Example: more sponsorship money in the UFC, bigger bonuses, etc.

It would be an interesting case if Eddie is arguing that Bellator can't match the UFC's offer by simply offering the same payment per fight. Example: more sponsorship money in the UFC, bigger bonuses, etc.

I agree. There is no way of covering a PPV cut, since Bellator doesn't do PPV's.

Bjorn Rebney on dispute over matching Eddie Alvarez's UFC offer: 'We didn't alter a word'
By Mike Chiappetta on Jan 7, 5:52p
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Mike Chiappetta, MMA Fighting
When Bjorn Rebney launched Bellator in 2008, Eddie Alvarez was his first big splash. Rebney gave the lightweight star a $100,000 signing bonus and made him a building block for the organization, and Alvarez took it from there, becoming a champion within it. The relationship between the two thrived to a point where the men built a friendship that transcended the employer-employee dynamic.

Within the last few days though, that bond has been at least partially fractured by a contract dispute that has led to dueling lawsuits and a cloudiness over Alvarez's future.

The issue shortly after Bellator waived its exclusive negotiating period, allowing Alvarez to take his talents to the open market. As expected, the UFC approached Alvarez about a deal that would bring his talents to its octagon, and Alvarez quickly signed an offer sheet. Under the terms of a clause in his Bellator contract, that promotion had a right to match the UFC offer, and that's where things get murky.

According to Alvarez in a Monday interview on The MMA Hour, Bellator didn't match the deal. Speaking metaphorically to avoid exact contract language, he likened the UFC's deal to "fine dining" and Bellator's to "McDonald's," saying all dinners are not created equal.

Rebney vehemently disagrees. In fact, he told MMA Fighting in a Monday interview, Bellator's matching offer was literally a mirror image of the contract the UFC offered Alvarez.

"I will tell you point blank, no questions asked, we matched it dollar for dollar, term for term and section for section," he said. "To avoid any kind of ambiguity, let me make clear, we took the UFC contract, we took it out of the PDF format, we changed the name 'UFC' to 'Bellator' and we signed it. We didn't alter a word, we didn't alter a phrase, we didn't alter a section, we didn't alter a dollar figure."

Then how can it be that such a discrepancy between the two sides would arise? As far as Rebney can tell, Alvarez's issue comes from the projected dollar figures he could earn from the UFC's pay-per-view bonus structure.

"Could" is the operative word there, as according to Rebney, that pay-per-view money in the UFC offer to Alvarez is nothing more than a hypothetical.

"There is no guaranteed pay-per-view in the UFC offer to Eddie Alvarez," he says emphatically. "We as Bellator don't have to match projections. We don't have to match what could conceptually happen. We have to match guaranteed dollars and what the UFC contractually guaranteed would occur. That is what we are held to."

Despite that, Rebney said that Alvarez's pay-per-view stake was matched anyway, under the belief that Bellator could move into the pay-per-view market with the right fight, for example, a rematch of the notable 2011 bout between Alvarez and Michael Chandler.

The main bullet points of the 40-page UFC offer to Alvarez was a $250,000 signing bonus and a $70,000 fight purse with a $70,000 win bonus for his first fight, with salaries escalating over the life of the deal. The contract was to cover a span of 40 months or eight fights, whichever occurred earlier.

When Alvarez first went out on the open market, Rebney originally feared his deal would be closer in line with that of Hector Lombard, which would make it financially unviable. But when he saw the final terms, he felt it would be possible to monetize Alvarez in a way that made it reachable, and matched the terms.

In a phone call from Rebney to Alvarez last week, Rebney said that he told Alvarez that addition to matching the terms, the promotion would also promise to feature him in Spike-aired television specials that would also generate income for him. Rebney said that at the time, Alvarez seemed receptive to the idea of returning to Bellator.

"We have a quarter-of-a-million dollar check sitting and waiting to be sent to Ed and are ready to be scheduling bouts immediately," he said.

But in a follow-up telephone call later in the week to discuss the contract situation, things changed. Rebney said he got an uneasy feeling when Alvarez came on to the call with six attorneys.

Within 30 minutes of the call's completion, according to Rebney, both sides had filed suit against each other. Rebney said he's since offered to fly Alvarez and his family to the promotion's California offices to resolve the situation but was rebuffed.

The next step in the away-from-the-cage drama is anyone's guess. The wheels of justice grind slowly, and Alvarez, who turns 29 years old on Friday, said on The MMA Hour that he'd be open to some kind of settlement in hopes of avoiding a drawn-out legal process.

Rebney believes the relationship with Alvarez can be mended as long as Alvarez comes to understand that Bellator did match the terms of the contract he was offered by Zuffa. After all, in his estimation, he's paid Alvarez about $900,000 in over the course of his time in Bellator, and is poised to do even better in the coming years regardless of which promotion ends up with his services.

"Ed and I have four years of a good working relationship and about 30 days of not a good relationship," he said. "When you weigh those factors out, there's a very high likelihood we could shake hands and get past it with a fair amount of ease. Ed's in business and as you can see from the numbers, it can be a very lucrative business. I know I can shove off and move forward, put things back in line in short order. I hope Ed can do the same. It may be a long, drawn out fight between the two or something that can be settled relatively quickly. We'll see."

Seems to me like Eddie wants to fight the best in the world and knows that will not happen in Bellator. Also Bellator knows they lose a big name if Eddie goes away.. I would rather see him fight in the UFC and lose then fight for Bellator and win.

Seems to me like Eddie wants to fight the best in the world and knows that will not happen in Bellator.

Eddie wants the most money and realizes that the PPV cut could make a huge difference. Eddie is a very fan friendly fighter, so as long as he's on an OK card, he could pull in a nice little chunk of change consistently. Making the most money possible has always been Eddie's big deal..not fighting the best. Dude said he'd fight literally anywhere as long as it was the most possible money he could make for his family.

In Eddies own words what Bellator offered him was a meal at McDonalds and UFC offered him a meal at a fine dining restaurant. I think Bjorn is lying here,

What i am not sure about here and please guys fill me in. In this case UFC offered him a contract, Bellator countered and even if they matched it completely does that complete match mean he has to stay with Bellator or does he get to say "Well it is great, but I want to fight here" or is this the result with them suing him now.

If its determined that the contracts are indeed a match (and the interpretation of the PPV cut is the key) then Eddie either has to accept the offer (not sure of UFC can submit a 2nd offer or not) or Eddie has to sit for a time period (like a year I think)

Why is he a slave? "Free Alvarez" Bellator's Contracts are Shady! I think when its all said and done, Bellator didn't really match the Contract. UFC has PPV Shares, Bellator Doesn't. How can they match something they can't offer?

Sounds like Alvarez shot himself in the foot by signing the first deal, allowing Bellator to have the matching right. And Bellator is right, they don't have to match a figure that he might make, with the right wins.

i don't understand the PPV cut. you have the potential to make more money and i know it was a big deal when it came to signing Lombard and he fought on 149 but then he fought on a FX card, which would nullify the PPV cut. and from what we learned from Overeem, he only gets a cut if the event gets over 500k buys. if all of Eddies fights are on PPV with GSP/Bones then it's no problem, but who knows how many of them will actually be on ppv. i'm just thinking out loud here.

Why is he a slave? "Free Alvarez" Bellator's Contracts are Shady! I think when its all said and done, Bellator didn't really match the Contract. UFC has PPV Shares, Bellator Doesn't. How can they match something they can't offer?

He signed a contract stating that Bellator has the right to match any offers for a specified window of time, and as long as they match the offer, he has to sign with them, otherwise wait until the specified window of time has ended. He agreed to the deal. Simple as that. And not all UFC fighters get a cut of the ppv. It's usually not until they're in a title fight that they start getting the ppv cut. So to say that because Alvarez MIGHT get a title shot next year, after three or four wins in the UFC, Bellator would have to pay him extra is just ridiculous. And the fact that Rebney says that Bellator is looking into potentially doing ppvs themselves nullifies that argument as well.